One big feature differentiating from previous expos in Hainan is the display of these humanoid robots.
I think this is the first time we see such a massive display of these devices.
So the companies are attracted by the massive and open market of China.
They come to Hainan, they can benefit even more.
They can be more efficient.
But when we look at humanoid robots, China is definitely leading the global research in this area.
I mean, currently China has so many factories and companies working towards the humanoid robots.
China has got such a large industrial system.
So that means if you are in cities like Shenzhen or Dongguan, you can actually buy all your you know these kind of components that you expect to build a humanoid robot within probably 100 kilometers.
The chat lounge.
The chat lounge unpacks views and opinions on hot issues in a more casual way.
From AI-powered glasses to flying cars and next-generation humanoid robots.
Companies from China and around the world have gathered on the tropical island of Hainan for the 6th China International Consumer Products Expo.
Are these cutting-edge technologies just gimmicks, or will they truly become part of our future lives?
Welcome to the chat lounge.
I'm Xu Yawen.
Joining me today to unpack the latest trends at Hainan Expo are three incredible guests.
Chen Jiahe, Chief Investment Officer at Novamarchy Technologies.
Dr Zhang Gong, Professor with University of International Business and Economics.
Dr joe mee, senior research fellow with chinese academy of international trade and economic cooperation.
Welcome to the chat, gentlemen.
So the first question is for all of you we know this year's hainan expo is bigger and more international than ever, And the dedicated tech consumption zone has been introduced at the Expo for the first time, and there we saw a wide range of new tech consumer products are on display, from AI glasses, flying cars to next-generation humanoid robots.
So what specific smart devices or emerging technologies caught your attention and made you think oh, this could actually change how we live in the near future.
Maybe we can start with Jiahe.
Yeah, sure.
I think currently, if we look at our economy, especially the consumption market, we can see that technologies are playing a very important role in reshaping how we are living every day.
One of my personal favorites would be the high-tech products used in the homes, what we call the smart home appliances that you can see with all these new technologies added.
Your life in your house can be easier compared with before.
For example, there has been more and more products available for feeding and raising your pets.
That reduces a lot of work from the pet owners to a very small extent compared with before.
Of course, these smart climate appliances are more expensive compared with the traditional things.
But it really saves you quite a lot of time.
So this is probably my personal favorite, with the consumption markets, where technology is really playing.
What about you, Zhang?
As for Jiahe, he's more interested in smart devices for pets.
How about you?
Like what smart devices have caught your attention?
Well, I think Chinese companies are very innovative.
And in addition, the Chinese consumer market is extremely competitive.
That propels companies to be constantly innovating, constantly coming up with new products to push to the market.
And I think there are those what I call consumption frontiers, these high-end, probably more expensive products that haven't been widely populated here in China.
And these things are probably more exposed to the high-income class consumers.
These are the frontiers of consumption.
And some of them are already being quite popular in developed countries, but just starting to be popular here in China, and a very good example is Yang right.
You know, yacht is not very popular in China at this point.
Only a few people can afford it and actually using it.
But the United States, for example, it's actually being used by the upper middle class.
A lot of people have a small yacht somewhere in Spain a couple of times in a year to sell out into the sea.
This is one big category.
And another big category I would characterize as AI plus technology application.
I think the entire spectrum of consumer products in China manufactured by Chinese companies are undergoing an AI plus enabling process.
This in a way is actually quite revolutionary in my view.
I'm pretty sure every company executive of consumer products they are talking about it.
They are planning for it.
They are probably already working on it.
And if not in the boardroom, whiteboards, already it's been implemented.
Every product manufactured by consumer product company here in China is probably thinking about how to apply AI, how to use AI technologies to enhance product features and functions.
And this is one area where foreign companies are very difficult to compete against Chinese companies.
We have our own large language models, at extremely affordable prices.
And there are, you know, tighter versions of that, and they'll be rapidly applied in the products.
So I think this represents a huge revolution that many Chinese companies are definitely.
We can call these products a small product.
That's another major development in my view that can drive growth for many years to come.
I see.
Dr. Zhongmi, so Dr. Zhonggong just mentioned AI plus consumption.
So if we zoom in to the specific item, the AI glasses, because from the Expo, we can tell that different brands are clearly taking different approaches.
Some are doubling down on real-time translation.
Others are all-in-one features like photography and phone payments.
So have you ever tried any of these AI glasses in your daily life?
And what functions matter to you?
Well, unfortunately, I haven't that experience of trying those glasses.
But I can find that many of my friends share their experiences in using these glasses.
So I'm wearing the glasses every day.
So if I want to have one, I would say that it may be not so difficult to wear it all the day.
So it should be light.
And on the other side I think that's the best thing for the glasses is trying to have a better integration about the virtual networks with real life.
So it's a kind of maybe a very important function for us to identify the things that we are looking at, or trying to monitor the movement of the eyeballs, and trying to give you more information.
It's not only about the glasses.
I think that form are even more comprehensive ways.
It should have some like the voice, remindings or kind of ways to make you have a better ability to talk with others.
We know that we are facing many new scenarios.
Like you know, I went to the Canton fair last weekend and I have seen there are so many people from around the world.
They are speaking many different languages.
So, if you are able to use the glasses, I would say that it will be very important for us to reduce the difficulties in communicating with each other.
I think that is the kind of thing for improving our efficiency and making it even better for us to understand the reality.
Like for the scientists if they are going out.
I think that is very important for them to identify different plants, different animals by just looking at that.
I think that's a very useful way for us to collect the information, and have better connections with our coworkers or our teammates is another important issue.
So the glasses is only our entrance of the data.
We can use that as an important tool to support us for better communication and understanding of this nature.
Dr. Zhou, here's something really stands out.
Since the beginning of this year, China has officially included AI smart glasses into the National Trading Subsidy Program, putting them right alongside smartphones, tablets and smart watches as one of the four major subsidized gadget categories.
And that's a big signal.
Why do you think AI glasses got this treatment?
Immensely, I would say that the consumption promotion is one of our main tasks.
So last year we have done a lot of practices about the TV, about the mobiles, some of these computers.
I think that this year, the consumers really want some new things for the scenarios.
We do have so many applications areas for people to use.
So if they are able to provide enough user support, I think that enterprises who are dealing with the situation, they will be more active in development and research and they will also have a better usage of the technology.
So the consumption is one of our main tasks.
This year for the government report, we found that consumption is the number one task we have to deal with.
So in the coming five years, or even longer, I would say that consumers in China really are able to consume more things, not just the traditional ones, but some of the advanced technology ones.
So the glasses our smart glasses are really what we are using have much more potential for the people.
So the problem is about the cost.
If we are using some subsidies to encourage the consumers with preferable prices, I think that they can place more orders and the more they use, the better that the companies can have for improving the abilities and also to reducing the cost further.
So this is really a good start if we can create our are important push for the better development.
I think that we can also benefit from that.
And the following times.
The smart glasses can also be exported to other countries to meet the demand of the world market.
Well, Jia He, you're an investor based in Hainan with the subsidies driving adoption.
So what's your assessment of this AI glasses market here in China?
Well, when we look at AI glasses, it is something that is very interesting, that is probably having a very large future, but it's still got a very, a very basic obstacle that is facing us.
So this is a very interesting technical issue here is that if the AI glasses can be very convenient, you don't feel any uncomfortable when wearing it.
Then AI glasses will have a huge amount of future to replace many things that we're using right now.
I mean, things like TV screens, mobile phones, it can actually do a lot of job with you.
I mean, imagine that you're wearing this glass and it is actually searching all things for you when you're walking on the street and stuff like that.
But one small obstacle that is stopping the AI glasses to be widely used in our daily lives at this very moment is that people still feel a bit uncomfortable when wearing them.
So this is an obstacle that we have to pass.
If one day the whole tech world passes this obstacle, then we will see a large future of the AI glasses.
And I think that's why the subsidy has been given quite a lot to the development of AI glasses is because If you don't push a lot of investments into this kind of technical issue, then you won't have a day to sort it out.
But if you do invest a lot of your resources and the energies into developing it and you overcome this obstacle, you can have a very large future lying ahead.
So this is what is facing the AI glasses right now.
So it's a future that awaits our investment to discover.
The chat lounge unpacks views and opinions on hot issues in a more casual way.
So Zhang, what's your thoughts on this?
Do you think AI glasses could actually replace smartphones or TVs in the near future?
A little bit of a different perspective on this issue.
I'm wondering why the takeoff hasn't been as fast as expected.
Maybe consumers are concerned about one issue we haven't really talked about.
That has to do with the health issue, I think.
Now, obviously, a glass like this is networked, so it is going to emit electromagnetic power.
So you have this microwave thing, you know, functioning practically every second, very close to your brain.
You know, whether people are concerned about it or not.
You know, the phone is you put it in a pocket, right?
And it's not always on your body, but the glass is always on your head.
And, to be honest, I would be a little bit hesitant before I have a full understanding of the medical implications of such an electromagnetic signal emitting device getting to my brain practically every second.
I mean, that's a major concern from my perspective.
Well, we will leave medical experts to do more research on that.
In the meantime, I like to bring up this very interesting or big trends at this year's Expo, which is the flying cars.
We have seen them in movies in the past, but they are actually at Hainan Expo this year.
The Xiaopeng Aero brought us Land Aircraft Carrier.
It's a road vehicle that carries charges and deploys a two-passenger electric vehicle.
Takeoff and landing aircraft.
Pre-orders are already open in China at around $300,000.
So my question is is this a genuine breakthrough or is it still more of a showpiece for the wealthy?
And will any of us actually be able to use the flying car anytime soon?
I'm Dr Zhou Mi.
Uh yes, i have noticed that we do to show that the car.
It's a kind of uh integration of this car and maybe it's a trunk and with a helicopter, so you might understand it.
Maybe uh, if you have enough space, you can use that to hold that.
But we still have a lot of problems to address.
One of the most important challenges is that regulations are we allowed to use these vehicles in certain areas?
So i have noticed that in some provinces, like in georgia, they have do some experiment on the opening of a zero low altitude space.
So that is very necessary for this kind of new equipment or vehicles to be used.
I mean, in China, we do have this very huge demand for using these vehicles, but can we do it in our systematical ways?
And because without enough demand, I don't think that providers can have enough strength to continue to make it in the massive production of these things.
The demand is there.
Demands are really driven not only by the wealth but also by the real demand for the people to go across some rivers to do some very busy traffic to save them time.
So many people really want to have that.
The problem is not only about the price, it's about the regulation, about enough qualification, because even for the helicopter itself, as you mentioned, electrified helicopter is not just using the gasoline.
So there will be more problems about how can we have some standards to guarantee the securities using them or the time when people are having that in the garage.
I would say that are both problems.
How about the batteries?
Can we make it safer? where in the future i know that for this helicopter they have two modes one is the people drive it another one is automatic driving yes so there are so many you know new things that we have to discuss from the technological edge i think that it has got it's a protocol but From the real usage, it needs to have many data and experiences or lessons gathered from the real use.
So it sounds like this flying car can maybe be used in a scenario for tourism instead of in our daily commute.
Well, in my understanding for the tourists, there are already many helicopters, but they are based on the gasoline or other fuels.
They are really expensive.
They will need some kind of a commercial use together with some private usage.
And I mean both of these are really important support for the better application for these helicopters.
Hmm, zhang you you, you have something to say please yeah well um, i think this is an incredible new idea.
It's, it's intriguingly, uh interesting to me, uh.
But let me do a little bit comparison with a very traditional uh, single engine, piston engine, general aviation small aircraft.
This is the mature market in the united states that are half a million install base of those type of airplanes and the question it begs the question you know what?
What is innovative here what?
What difference does it make compared to these old technologies?
I can think of a couple of things.
First of all, it doesn't need a runway, but this is a huge plus.
It's a vertically taking off airplane, right?
So you can dispense with a runway, which really eliminates a huge barrier.
The second thing is that this is powered by electricity.
There's a world of difference between an ice-powered piston engine versus an electric motor powered engine, because electric motor powered engine is at least 100 times safer than a piston engine.
A piston engine has many more moving parts.
As a matter of fact, if you do anything about the aviation industry, there's a stringent requirements for certifying those engines by the FAA, the Federal Aviation Agency, which is a regulatory body in the United States.
And you know, flying a small airplane with a piston single engine, piston engine is actually, you know, quite risky.
I mean if you look at the casualty rates of those typical Cessna Piper airplanes, it's a bit of a danger.
Now hopefully you have the electric engine, which has a lot more, a lot less fuel, moving parts and electric motors, is typically quite reliable.
So that, you know, enhances safety a lot, I think.
And enhanced by, I would imagine, the sort of self-balancing fly-by-wire kind of software evolved from the flying drones.
They're moving to the airplanes for people.
So I would imagine that's a lot safer.
That's actually very good.
Now, let me tell you the uncertainty, the things that we don't know about.
First of all, if you look at the functions of these typical traditional general aviation airplanes, there are two kinds of uses.
One is for recreational use.
People fly for 30 minutes an hour over the weekend to enjoy good weather, have a nice view, that kind of thing.
The second thing is, you know, for more of a utility purpose, people do use it for commuting.
And for commuting purposes, you need to have a speed requirement, right?
I mean right now the live sports aviation license, LSA license Airplane.
Typically they're flying at about 120 miles per hour to 140 150 miles per hour.
So you have to be at least twice the speed of a moving car.
Otherwise, why do you fly?
You can just drive, right?
So we're talking about at least 120, 130 miles an hour flying airplane.
This is actually quite doable, very easy for a traditional airplane with a piston engine.
But this is a rotary flying device.
Can it move that fast?
That I don't know.
I'm not sure whether it can fly at that speed.
And another issue is, of course, is the range.
I mean, if you're just commuting for, let's say, 100 miles, 150 miles, you don't need to fly.
You just drive.
But the thing is, maybe in our daily life, the traffic jam is a big headache for a lot of people.
Well, I mean, when you talk about flying, it's mostly long distance.
I would imagine it's a flight over say, a 200 miles range or 300 mile range.
So this device is definitely powered by battery.
Whether it can carry enough batteries power to sustain a flight over two hours, let's say.
I'm actually quite skeptical about it.
You can do a very simple calculation in physics to say, let's say, for a flyer now, I would imagine this device needs at least 15 kilowatts of power.
And the 15 kilowatts, our power needs this much battery and this weighs this much.
And there's a limit on how much battery you can carry onto this airplane.
So I would imagine the range and the flying hours of this airplane. might be just around an hour.
Actually, I just look at that real quick.
It says the flying time normally is less than 30 minutes at the moment.
Exactly.
That proves my point, right?
So this immediately raises the question about being used for commuting purpose.
I mean...
30 minutes, even assuming you can fly 120 miles, we're talking about 60 miles.
I mean, 60 miles is like, you know, from my place, Beijing, wanting to do Daxing Airport.
It's kind of a range.
Why would you fly?
So it's an interesting question.
But in any case, it's a new technology that represents the future, I would say.
It's a huge leap from a traditional single-piston engine kind of airplane.
And that's a big quantum leap in my view.
I think the technology will improve in the future and eventually increase, and its speed will increase as well.
Jiahe, what's your take on what Dr. Zhang Gong had to say about the limited range of flying cars?
And also, where does China actually stand in a global flying car innovation race?
Are we talking about China catching up, leading the pack or carving out a completely different path?
Well, I think for flying cars, it is amazing.
I mean, you see this kind of cars being driving and being flying and gives you all the possibilities.
If you're rich enough, you get this car, probably as a big toy for a rich person.
It's really, it's really amazing.
It's exciting, but uh, if we so, so that's why so many companies actually investing money into it, because When we look at the growing of the tech industry, it is that sometimes you can't really imagine what it's going to be like in 10 or 15 years' time.
So most high-tech companies just adopt a very simple way.
Whatever new comes out, we throw money at it.
If that works, then we're going to make a lot of money.
If it doesn't work, then fine, because in high-tech industry you make all sorts of investments that don't generate quite a lot of things.
Only the successful investment can give you enough return.
But if we look at the real application of flying car right now, the biggest issue is safety.
Because if you are flying this car, you have more chances than driving on the road to hurt yourself.
And you have much more chances to hurt others when you are flying in the sky.
So this is a very big issue because traffic casualty is one of the biggest casualties that is facing our society.
I mean, not only in China, but in America, in Europe, everywhere it's an issue.
Usually, if we look at the death rates of people get hurt in the traffic is about 02 to 04 percent, so that means between 250 to 500 person.
I mean every a few hundred people when we finally die in a traffic accident.
So that's a problem because we have been throwing so many resources into containing the traffic accidents and we got this result about 03 of the population will finally lose their lives in any kind of traffic accidents.
We've got safety belts.
We've been investing quite a lot of money to prevent the batteries from from burning.
Um, we have all these kind of traffic control, traffic laws, traffic lights, everything.
We still got about 03 percent of the people finally uh, got killed in all sorts of traffic accidents.
And now we are flying this time to the sky how we are going to contain the safety.
So I think what's facing the flying cars the tech issue is not a problem, because the cars are really flying right now.
It can give you quite a lot of convenience.
Previously, maybe I can only drive from one place to another, but now I can fly.
These technical issues are easier to sort it out than convincing the society that it is safe enough.
It is not causing more damage or more potential damage than the traditional ways of driving, which has been developed for one or 200 years, which has been made as safe as we can.
But, you know, Let me just name one small thing.
For example, now I can fly my car anywhere I want.
But while I'm driving on the road, China is now doing a lot of checks driving and drinking.
I mean, if you drink some alcohol and you've been stopped by the police, you know at the middle way and they found out that you have been drinking, your driving license would just be erased away.
You have to you even face penalties.
Maybe you can go to prison if you cause some damage.
But now you're driving in the sky.
Who is going to check you?
So that's a problem.
I mean, it's all sorts of safety problems.
I think the safety problem that is facing the driving car is much more important than the tech issues.
So another big trend at this year's Hainan Expo is the next generation of humanoid robots.
We're seeing robots that can greet you at the front door, answer questions, make coffee dance, even give massages.
So that's impressive.
But in practical terms, how far away are those robots from real commercialization?
Dr. Jomi, what's your take on that?
I would say that it seems to be a dilemma on using of the homologous robot.
At first.
All of us are very fantastic and curious about the development of the robots to make it more efficient and more like the humans and can deal with the different kind of very complicated tasks and also, you know, even doing good in the factories.
But another angle is also.
You know some people are arguing whether it will have some threat for the people's employment.
So in this regard, I would say there seems to be no real kind of ideal ways for us dealing with this problem.
But, you know, decides what we can do in the theoretical inclusions or trying kind of studies.
I think that the real applications are encouraging.
And, if you're looking at the Expo, many companies, as you said, just showed their abilities of using the robots in the different scenarios.
Some of them at home to help people to deal with home staff and others are used in the factories.
I think that they are they are in the stage of developing.
And I believe that no matter what we really want from these robots, it is developing very quickly.
And if you are looking at the real demand from the market.
China is a very large manufacturing country.
We have so many industries who want to improve their efficiency and make the people safer.
So if we are able to use the robots in a good way, I would say that is another big jump for us to improve the efficiency and the resilience of the supply chains.
And in the home there are still so many different kinds of usage, as China is stepping into the aging societies.
So many senior persons who need to be taken care of.
I would say that is really a problem for this generation of the young people or the people in the 40s, 50s.
They are really facing the challenges.
So these are also very good, plenty of scenarios that we can use the humanoid robots.
So, no matter from any angles, I can see that demands are huge, but also there are a lot of things we need to do about the ethnics, about the ways of using the robots safely, and also about the energy supply.
So it's not only about the hardware, it's systems to do with the hardware and software.
And the artificial intelligence is improving very quickly.
So the robots are really performing quite different compared with last year.
Every year it's evolving and I would say this kind of change are really giving people more confidence for using that more wisely, but also are giving them more fear on using them unwisely.
So these are the real things that have to say a dilemma.
You're listening to the chat lounge.
Let's take a short break.
Coming back we will continue our discussion, Thank you.
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Welcome back to the chat lounge.
Let's continue our discussion.
So Jia He in your observation.
Where is China now when it comes to its position in innovation of the humanoid robots?
We do have noticed that recently, when foreign leaders came to China and visit, they asked to visit those tech companies, such as Unitary, one of the leading companies making the humanoid robots.
And their robots appeared at Spring Festival Gala two years in a row.
So where is China now when it comes to humanoid robots innovation?
Well, when we look at humanoid robots, China is definitely leading the global research in this area.
I mean, currently China has so many factories and companies working towards the humanoid robots.
And this is also strongly effective because China has got such a large industrial system.
So that means if you are in cities like Shenzhen or Dongguan, you can actually buy all these kind of components that you expect to build a humanoid robot within probably 100 kilometers.
You can just get any parts you need.
So that's why China has been developing, so advancing with the.
I mean, if you look at the development of the humanoid robot industry in the world, Chinese companies is really leading that.
The question that people are asking is how many applications are these humanoid robots going to find in the future?
Because currently we have seen so many different types of humanoid robots being developed, but we don't really have real application of them in most cases.
One of the claimings that these companies have been making is that these humanoid robots can actually replace human workers in factories.
So you don't have to employ real people in factories, which can increase the efficiency of the factory production.
But the fact is that if you go to many of the modern factories today, they are automatic factories, what we call light out factories, which means you can turn the lights out.
Turn the lights out during during the night and the factory will run on itself, so it's actually not many human labor is working in these factories anymore.
I would say that currently, if we look at the daily application of humanoid robots, we still don't find a lot of application of them yet.
So these companies are developing, they're making these models for presentation.
People say, okay, that's interesting.
And you have a humanoid robot as your receptionist probably, and your clients will find it really interesting.
But the real applications haven't yet been found in a large extent.
But another thing is that with the development of these skill sets that have been used in humanoid robots, they can be applied to different robots.
I mean probably in the future, many of the Robots don't really have to look like a human, but these techniques actually come from the development of the humanoid robots.
For example, I have seen a coffee-making robot.
It doesn't have legs, it doesn't have a head, it only got two arms, which you can easily tell that these two arms are the technology you're getting out from the development of the humanoid robots, and that robot can actually make you a very good cup of coffee.
It's replacing some of the coffee shoppers that has been employed.
So that's an example that the the technology developed can be used to more real life application.
Well, we've been talking about those cool products, but if we step back and look at this bigger picture,
So this year's Hainan Expo brought together more than 3400 brands from over 60 countries and regions, with international exhibits accounting for 65.
That's an increase of 20 percentage point from the previous year.
On top of that, more than 40 launches events across sectors from health to technology.
So my question is, why choose Hainan Expo for global or regional launch?
And is this about tipping to Chinese market or is it something unique about Hainan Island itself?
Zhang.
Well, Hainan is unique in the sense that it's a free trade zone, zero tariff for imported products.
I would imagine this is definitely the first step or stepping stone to the continental part of the Chinese market.
Because of these tariff incentives.
I would say that's why this expo is being held in.
In a way, it's serving, as I would say, the second import export.
We have an import export in Ohio.
This is the second one.
Actually, this is the place for displaying products for many international foreign companies.
And you know, Chinese statistics have just been released a few days ago and you're seeing that there is a huge jump, almost a 20 jump, in input for China in the first quarter of this year.
So you know, China is increasingly become the world's largest consumer market and we have a huge trade surplus actually, right.
So last year was a 12 trillion trade surplus and essentially it's the government's policy to increase more imports to close down a little bit that trade surplus, because the trade surplus is now sustainable economically and politically.
So we have an incentive to import more things and this is actually gospel to many foreign companies.
And the expo in Hainan is actually precisely serves that purpose.
That is why these companies come into the expo and display their products.
I'm not surprised by it.
And hopefully they can be a success.
These companies can be successful in selling these products to the larger and broader mass markets here.
So, Dr Zhou, what does Hainan Expo really tell us about how Chinese consumers are choosing to live today?
And in what ways does the Expo show that China's consumption is upgrading, not just in price but in quality and aspiration?
Yes, i agree with you that you know, for chinese people, the chinese consumers, they really want to try some new things.
I think that is definitely the curiosity in chinese styles and consumer styles.
I i i would argue that is also the reason why the suppliers of these products and you know those exhibition exporters in the export in hainan are really benefited from.
They're not just providing sales consumers what they have been doing for many decades or even centuries.
They are trying to uh integrate some of this uh leading technology and trying to create some new things for the Chinese consumers.
So the newer the better.
The higher quality is one of the reasons why we're looking at the high quality, the nature of the Chinese consumption.
I think that is also coming from the government policies.
The governments are helping uh, you know this nuisance to happen.
They are supporting the sectors to be to be started and also, no matter from the financial flow of the private sectors, capital flows, and also the talents who are doing the research.
They are educated to be fit for these new areas.
So I think that is the reason why, you know, the Expo attracted so many new companies to go to.
And I believe that is also kind of played for them to get more brilliant ideas from the demand side.
So the supply are really interacting one with each other, the demand and the supply.
So I think that's based on these good reactions.
Many companies are getting the idea that the Chinese market is really welcoming some better things from some more innovative basis.
It's not just like what we have been doing for the traditional ways of doing businesses.
So the expo really are very important windows to show the most fascinating products of the world.
And they can also learn from that.
Jiahe.
From an investment point of view, do you see tech plus consumption becoming a major new focus?
Is this just a short-term hype or a long-term shift that smart money is already moving into?
The smart money has already been paying a lot of attention to the growing of high tech industry.
I mean all sorts of high technologies, a large language model, the using of high tech in daily consumption lives, the flying cars, all these kinds of things.
I think the whole market is actually looking at them.
So, if you talk with people about their investment nowadays, if you go to investment conferences, I think about 95 or 98 of them are talking about high tech uh, the development of the future, all sorts of things.
And look at what these high technologies have been doing to the changing of our society, the changing of our work.
They have really made lives much easier than before and you you, you definitely expect more changes to come out in the future.
So yes, i mean, this is a long lasting uh phenomenon in the capital markets and i would say nowadays um, anyone who is doing trades in China, who is living on investment.
We can't miss the development of high technologies.
If you are an investor in high-tech industry, you definitely have to study them.
Or if you are a more traditional investor like myself, being more valuable, being more looking at the valuation of companies, I still have to pay a huge amount of attention to the development of high technologies.
Because if I buy a traditional company, I have to make sure that the development of technologies won't replace what my company is actually doing.
So it's quite a lot of studying we're doing every day right now.
Interesting.
So Zhang.
From the policy perspective, we know this year's Expo is the first major national-level consumer event since the full implementation of island-wide special customs operation in Hainan Free Trade Port.
It's also the first major exhibition in the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
What specific policy dividends should we be watching for?
And could they actually make a tangible difference for international businesses in terms of logistics tariffs or speed to market?
Yeah, well, I'd look at the press release of the official organization hosting this event.
They're saying that, you know, the traffic's going up rapidly.
And for the entire Hainan Island, the number of visitors are increasing.
And also the purchase amount, both in terms of products and the money amount, has also been increasing.
That's all very good news.
I think this is exactly what the Hainan government is looking for.
They want more people to come.
They want more. purchase to be made on the island.
And it appears to be happening.
And I think, to answer your question, in line with the island government's five-year plan, they're trying to develop this place into sort of more like the, the florid of america's right.
So you know, it's a place for people to enjoy, take vacations, for retirement and also um concomitantly, you know, there's the development of uh, you know, the healthcare industry, the medical industry, you know things associated with retirement, elderly people, that kind of thing, And that's a general development direction for the province.
And, I think, a lot of developments in that direction, and this event, the expo, is just one piece of that.
And I hope that this vision can be realized, materialized in the future.
Really we need a place somewhat like you know, like Florida here in China, that people go to for having a good time and for retirement.
It's a peaceful, tranquil place and the quality is exceptional, things like that.
So you know, we're very glad to see that Ireland is indeed developing towards that vision, with the living standard, with the income level in China steadily rising.
You know, let me say that China is more and more becoming like a developed country.
And you know, for advanced economies, developed countries economy, invariably there's a place like this
And, you know, China's place like this is Hainan.
So I think, you know, more people should go and visit the island.
If you have financial resources, you know, buy a piece of it.
I've been advocating people to buy a small condo over there, you know, for vacation.
This is the kind of a lifestyle that we Chinese people, we very hardworking Chinese people, are entitled to.
That's a vision that I have in mind for that.
Dr. Zhou, so China's economy grew 5.0% in the first quarter of this year.
With that kind of steady growth in the background, do those policies rolled out by Hainan Free Trade Port become even more valuable for international businesses looking to enter the Chinese market?
Well, definitely I think that from the angle of the flow of the resources, like you know, the imports, they have a very high coverage of the zero tariff import.
And for the people they come here in Hainan.
They don't have to have the visa before they came here for more than 70 countries and regions.
I think that these two things are really important.
And we also are seeing that some parts of Hainan is trying to improve the experimental for the cross-border data flows measurement in a better way.
So for the resources flow.
I think that if they come here to Hainan they will benefit from a much easier for all this kind of cooperation and allocation of the resources.
And the second, I think that China is not just our place of very many preferable policies.
It's also about the systematical way of innovation.
So the reforms are happening there about the taxes, about the ways of different transportation, message and the integration of them, and also about the New World FDI.
So the companies, they can come here to benefit from this first batch of uh reforms on the policies and regulations, methods.
And the third.
I would say that china is not just alone.
So i noticed that in the expo this year, guangxi and hannah have signed some kind of mous to have a better collaboration for the next five years until 2030.
They have reached an agreement on improving the connections and also logistic or any kind of mechanism innovation together.
I would say this kind of collaboration are happening among Guangdong and also many other provinces with Hainan.
So this is kind of a very important channels.
If they come here in Hainan, they can benefit from this facilitation measurement.
So the companies are attracted by the massive and open market of China.
They come to Hainan, they can benefit even more.
They can be more efficient, more quicker and also have a better expectation about the stabilities and enjoy our products open environment.
So these are some of the reasons I believe that they can come here and benefit from.
Whether you're into tech, curious about duty free shopping or just looking to understand how to test the waters before entering the Chinese market.
The Hainan Expo and this free trade port offers a window into those opportunities.
So before we wrap up our chat, I'd like to ask all of our panelists a very quick question here.
What's the one thing you will remember most from this year's Hainan Expo?
And if you had to bet on one trend that will actually define how we live five years from now, what would that be?
We can start from Jiahe.
Well, I think the most important development in the next five years regarding high technologies, I think, would still be concentrating on the home appliances that we're using right now.
I mean, there are too many things that Chinese people can change, too many things that we can change.
You know, have more improvement to make our lives much better by investing into these smart home appliances that is much more smarter than before.
I mean, think about if you go to chinese people's kitchen, go to our washing rooms.
You can see that we are still having a lot of improvement space for um smarter home appliances, like you know dish washing machines, smart pets toilets, all these kinds of things.
We can have more creation with our refrigerator.
Chinese people can definitely use much more ovens because in the traditional Chinese cooking oven is not a very popular tool, but nowadays more and more people, especially the younger generation, are starting to adopt this new type of kitchen stuff that hasn't really been used too much before the age of electricity.
And these kind of ovens are now smarter and smarter than before.
So we are actually seeing a much larger growth of home appliances compared with many other sectors.
So, yes, I'm personally having a lot of favor in this part.
How about you, Zhang?
Yeah, well, I think I wasn't there, actually.
I was reading from... news and press releases.
I think one big feature differentiating from previous expos in Hainan is the display of these humanoid robots.
I think this is the first time we see such a massive display of these devices.
And I think even though we sort of think hard about what actually these things can be used for.
It still represents the future, I believe.
I think human history is definitely developing towards that direction.
We probably have never thought about the wonderful applications that it may materialize in the future.
And that's also the same thing for the beginning time of PCs.
Remember when PC first came out, there are a lot of skepticism about what this thing is for, right? but today you know it's ubiquitous we can't live without them so uh same thing might happen here you know we don't have to be really clear about the future applications of these human robots but history history will not fail us and they will find a place in in a human world in the future Dr. Zhou Mi, what's your take on Dr. Zhang Gong and Jia He's remarks?
And your biggest takeaway from this year's Hainan Expo?
Well, I definitely agree with these two experts' opinions about the high-tech products.
But I also want to mention another important possibility for the expo, because China is trying to open our market to so many countries and many countries do have their special kinds of products, like agricultural products.
So you can find that there are more countries want to export to China.
I think that it is also good advantages of Hainan.
They are able to deal with agriculture in a better way.
So we're also helping them to improve their ability for some of this development in agriculture related areas.
So I am sure that we can see more of this good quality and much more diversified imports in the agriculture areas.
And I think that is definitely one potential for us to deal with also the resilience of the supply chains, especially in the food and agricultural products areas.
Thanks to our guests for sharing their insightful opinions.
I've been speaking with Chen Jiahe, Chief Investment Officer at Novem Archi Technologies, Dr Zhang Gong, Professor with University of International Business and Economics, and Dr Zhou Mi, Senior Research Fellow with Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
That's all for this episode of Chat Launch.
Thanks so much for listening.
Bye for now.
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